This invention pertains to loose-leaf binders, more particularly to a binder cover made from a single die-cut sheet of material, having a front leaf, a back leaf, and a first pair of pockets one on each leaf, which openings are in opposite directions when the cover is laid flat open. The binder cover may also have a second pair of pockets, which open laterally to the openings of the first pair of pockets, with no further die cutting of the sheet.
The field of loose-leaf binders is replete with designs for making covers having leaf pockets.
Many of the designs have two sheets of paper or plastic laminated or bonded together around two or three edges of the sheets to form pockets open at one or more of the edges, and slits through one or more of the sheets to form additional pockets by accessing the space between the sheets through the slits.
Other designs have a single sheet folded in half whereby the fold is one edge of the cover comprising the facing halves, and the halves are bonded along the opposite edge or any two of the three edges of the folded halves. In some designs an edge of one of the halves has one or more narrow tabs, or one tab that extends along the edge. The tab is glued to the edge of the other sheet. A tab is preferred because without a tab, papers inserted into the pocket tend to wedge between the glued edges.
Whether or not a tab is included, for aesthetic quality and maximum strength, care must be taken to fold the halves accurately so that the edges coincide. This arrangement is slow and labor intensive, or requires costly machinery maintained to tight tolerances.